


Kunoichi Versus Kraang

by Metal_Chocobo



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen, Kidnapping, Strong Female Characters, Teamwork, Yuletide 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-03-01 21:36:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2788562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metal_Chocobo/pseuds/Metal_Chocobo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>April didn't want to foil Karai's kidnapping plan only for the both of them to be taken by the Kraang. Now the kunoichi had to work together if they wanted to escape. That might be the most impossible task of the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kunoichi Versus Kraang

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Luna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna/gifts).



> Set between episodes Wormquake! and The Lonely Mutation of Baxter Stockman.

“That was really something else, guys,” April laughed.

“What did you expect?” Raph asked. “You know Purple Dragons don’t stand a chance against us.”

“Which is why we’re gonna party in the lair!” Mikey shouted, throwing his hands up in the air. Raph hit him on the head as Donny elbowed him in an attempt to quiet the exuberant turtle.

“Are you certain you don’t want to come celebrate with us, April?” Donny asked. “There’s gonna be pizza.”

“I’ve had pizza the last four days,” April said. “I’m a little pizzaed out.”

“We could order something other than pizza,” Donny offered.

“Sacrilege!” Mikey shouted. Raph hit him again.

“I appreciate it, Donny, really,” April said, patting him on the shoulder, “but it’s after eleven and I still have to study for tomorrow’s history test.”

“Then we’ll leave you to your studying,” Leo said. He grabbed Donny by the shoulder and turned his brother around, though the turtle’s face was still pointed at April. “Good night, April.”

“Good night guys,” April responded.

She watched as the turtles descended the fire escape and lifted up the manhole cover on the street below. Mikey and Donny both waved to her at least twice, while Leo and Raph limited themselves to a single wave apiece. Each time they waved she waved back lest they end up in another punching match over who did April like more. As soon as they were out of sight April went inside her aunt’s apartment and sighed. She loved those guys, but they were a serious drain on her energy reserves.

She walked down the hall, carefully avoiding the creaky boards that might wake her aunt, and slipped into her bedroom. Since her dad was first kidnapped her aunt had converted her home office into a bedroom for April. It still didn’t exactly feel like home, but after Dad had been missing for months, then turned into a bat beast, they put most of the O’Neil residence in storage and moved April’s things here.

She sat down at the desk far too ornate for a sixteen-year-old and pulled out her history book. She flipped it open to chapter 6, the Civil War, and set her notes down beside the text. In an hour April could easily reread her lecture notes and review all the bolded glossary terms in the book. That would give her enough time for a decent night’s sleep and be fresh for the exam. She probably didn’t really need this last review as April had kept up on the readings and homework for the course, but it couldn’t hurt to go to bed with the topics fresh in her mind.

There was a tap at her window. April looked up. The tapping happened again. April groaned and stood up. It was probably Donny perched on her window ledge—which was barely wide enough for a cat, much less a human sized turtle. When she was studying for her last trigonometry quiz Donny had ditched his brothers after patrol and ended up on her ledge to offer his help studying. She did not need this tonight.

“Donatello,” April snapped as she opened her window. “Go home! I don’t need—”

However the rest of April’s biting remark was lost as something slammed into her chest. She hit the floor, pencil flying out of her hand, and eyes shutting as she winced in pain. Whoever had been knocking was definitely not Donny. When she opened her eyes April saw Karai perched on top of her, casually pressing a knife to her chin.

“Guess you were expecting someone else?” Karai smirked. “Does your aunt know you entertain boys in here?”

“I don’t,” April snapped. She shifted her feet in an attempt to get into a better position, but Karai pressed the knife against her throat harder.

“I wouldn’t try anything if I were you,” Karai said. “You don’t want any scars on that pretty neck of yours. The boys might not like you anymore.”

“Un-huh, yeah I doubt that,” April said. She felt around with her right hand for some sort of weapon. Karai seemed pretty focused on her knife and April’s neck to really pay attention to what April was doing. She had her pinned so she figured the redhead was nullified. The ninja was overconfident.

“Oh? You think you’re so pretty boys will like you even with a neck scar?” Karai removed the knife and placed it against her cheek. “Let’s see if they’ll feel the same way about something a little more visible.”

“I wasn’t responding to that.” April’s fingers closed around something solid. She gave it a little tug and it moved. Good. It was heavy, but she could lift it. “I was saying that if you were in my shoes you’d try to do something anyway.”

“You’re right. I’m a kunoichi, not some damsel in distress, and a kunoichi always rescues herself,” Karai agreed. “But you’re not me.”

“Thankfully,” April growled. She swung the weight up against the side of the kunoichi’s face as hard as she could. Upon collision the weight exploded into a white powder. Her flour baby from health class had just made the ultimate sacrifice.

The attack was unexpected enough that Karai’s grip loosened. April shoved the girl off of her then scrambled to her feet. Five pounds of flour floating in the air made visibility terrible. This gave April an edge, as she knew the layout of her room and Karai didn’t. At least, she certainly hoped Karai didn’t. April rolled across her bed and dropped to the floor. There wasn’t enough time to work her floorboard out and retrieve her tessen. Master Splinter had always warned her to be prepared for an attack at any moment, but April had been more worried about her aunt finding unexplained weaponry. If she survived this she’d come up with multiple easy access hiding places.

Karai roared. April silently cursed and shook her head. She had hoped the other girl would be down for a bit longer. There was still a lot of flour in the air, but less than there had been. April felt something whiz by her before lodging with a thunk into the wall behind her. Great, Karai could see well enough to be deadly again.

April grabbed her baseball bat and swung. The wooden club whistled through the air connecting with nothing. Apparently she wasn’t half as accurate in the flour as the kunoichi. Well, that wasn’t surprising. April didn’t have the years of training Karai had. She had to try something different. She shut her eyes and tried to focus on her other senses. Surely they could reveal something.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She couldn’t explain why, but April spun round on her heels and swung upward. The sound of wood on steel was just as unmistakable as the reverberation in her arms. She had watched and sparred with the turtles enough to recognize both. April thought the flour cleared enough that she caught sight of Karai’s dismayed face, but it could have been her imagination.

She pulled on her bat hard. If Karai had locked it between her swords April would have a problem getting it back before the next attack came. That was why she used force. However, there was no resistance when April pulled. She saw the tanto lodged into the side of her bat as she toppled over onto her bed. The fall sent up a plume of flour. April assumed that was why she never saw Karai’s first coming. The kunoichi had dropped her sword in order to distract and disorient April. This was basic ninjutsu 101, she should have seen it coming.

Now that Karai’s attacks had connected she was laying them on thick. April was pummeled, at first in the face until she managed to cover it, then in her body. She tried to roll away from the attack, but Karai wouldn’t let her. When she fell off the bed Karai just switched to kicking her with her steel-toed boots. Karai was not in the mood to play with her victim; that was the only reason April had beaten her last time. April hacked bright red blood up onto the white flour covered floor.

She must have passed out because the next thing April knew she had her hands tied behind her back and she was slung over Karai’s shoulder. It took April ages to realize she was just aimlessly staring at Karai’s butt and actually look around. She must not have been unconscious for very long because the kunoichi was still on her fire escape. April felt about as sturdy as a cooked noodle. This actually worked in her favor as Karai was too busy cursing out her grappling hook for being a pain to maneuver one handed to realize the redhead had woken up. As soon as she could think straight April would use that to her advantage.

“Maybe I should bind her feet too,” Karai mused to herself out loud. “Don’t want her causing trouble in transit.”

Whelp, that meant she’d lose any edge she had. In the unlikely event Karai was so unobservant as to not notice her current state April would end up like a hog trussed up for slaughter. She had to act now.

April swung her feet back then kicked Karai in the gut as hard as she could. As Karai wasn’t expecting the sucker kick it was super effective. If she had more time to think April would have realized that knocking Karai off a third-story building while she was perched on her shoulder was a bad idea. However, she had lashed out in a blind panic. April tumbled down with her.

They landed on the roof of a passing van, denting it horribly. Karai was kind enough to act as additional padding for April’s fall. As it was the redhead was ready to pass out again. She was not built for this sort of damage. At least April had dealt Karai more pain with the fall than she ever could have on her own. She doubted the other girl would be up on her feet before she was.

The van had stopped moving the moment they crashed onto it. Now April head several doors click open. The vehicle shook making her feel nauseous. Then three men in black suits with identical faces leaned over her. April had seen this face a hundred, if not a thousand times. They were in big trouble.

“Kraang, what has damaged the vehicle issued to Kraang?” said the man on the left. Well, it wasn’t really a man, but rather an alien controlled robot designed to look like one. Kraangdroids like this one could interact with humans and been seen in public without drawing attention. Mikey named this type of Kraang robot ‘Normans.’

“Kraang, the damage to the vehicle issued to Kraang was caused by,” the robot paused and tilted its head to get a better look, “the one known as April O’Neil.”

“April O’Neil,” the three Normans said in unison.

“Oh crap,” April whispered before blacking out again.

April was nudged awake by the same boot that first knocked her out that night. She rolled over with a groan to find that not only was she bound at her hands and feet, but Karai was too.

“Finally,” Karai huffed. “I thought you were going to sleep all night.”

“Where are we?” April asked.

“Some Kraang stronghold.”

“That can’t be right,” April said, looking around. They were tied up in what looked like a defunct security office. A row of blank monitors lined one wall. “If this was a Kraang facility we’d be in one of their fancy holding cells with no way out.”

“Maybe they’re still remodeling this place?” Karai suggested.

“You think this could be a new base? Or maybe one somewhere where they don’t have the ability to convert it all to alien tech?”

“Dunno. The place looks former military to me,” Karai said. She shook her head and glared at April. “But who cares about the building? We need to get out of here!”

“We?” April asked.

“Yes ‘we,’ I can’t very well use you for turtle bait if I leave you behind. That was the whole reason I kidnapped you.”

“If you’re just going to use me for bait I don’t think I want to go with you,” April lied. There was no way she was staying with the Kraang. Even the Shredder’s hospitality was better than staying with an alien menace who wanted to use her body in some unknown fashion to take over the world.

“Well, that plan’s been scrapped now,” Karai growled. “My father may trust these aliens, but I don’t. The Kraang keep building these bases everywhere in my city and I won’t stand for it.”

“Bully for you.” April didn’t care if Karai wanted to throw a temper tantrum about the Kraang being in her sandbox.

“Let’s get out of here together. Maybe we can blow this place up on the way out,” Karai suggested. “A little payback.”

“Are you proposing an alliance?” April asked. “I thought I wasn’t good for anything but attracting boys.”

“You’re not good for much else, but you’re all I’ve got,” Karai admitted. She glowered at April again and ordered in her most commanding tone, “Help untie me right now.”

“No,” April shot back. “You help untie me.”

“If the Kraang burst in here before we’re both free I’m the one who can fight them off!”

“And I’m the one who has yet to break her word or backstab anyone,” April retorted.

“Fine, as a show of good faith,” Karai sighed, “we’ll free you first. Then will you work with me?”

“Sure.”

Karai wormed her way over to April. She couldn’t see what the kunoichi was doing behind her back, but she did feel Karai’s nails nick her several times. They were quite sharp, which is probably why the knotted rope wrists eventually snapped after being loosened. April rubbed her wrists a moment to get the blood flowing again then turned her attention to the binding around her ankles. The Kraang might be masters of inter-dimensional travel, but they couldn’t tie a decent knot. Karai’s were much better; April should know, she had been tied up enough times. Her feet were free in moments.

“Now untie me!” Karai demanded as April stood up. April rolled her eyes. Honestly, when she didn’t get her way immediately Karai acted like a bigger baby than Casey.

“You know, you could use the word please,” April said, looking around. She wanted to do a quick survey before Karai was free and took over. She wouldn’t listen to April if she had another alternative.

“April! If the Kraang burst in here before I’m free they’ll tie you up again and separate us. Escape will be impossible then,” Karai hissed. “Free me now. Please!”

“Okay, you’re right,” April said, shaking her head. She knelt down beside the other girl and began working on the knots. “I admit, I was about to fall into the old ‘I’ll scout ahead’ trope without getting back up or doing everything to secure my advantage like Master Splinter taught.”

“Why do you listen to that cowardly rodent?”

“Well, he taught me how to survive you,” April said lightly. “There, you’re free.”

“That was faster than expected,” Karai sniffed.

“I’ve had to become something of an expert escape artist over the last few months,” April said, “but also these were terrible knots.”

“I tie much better knots.”

“That’s hardly saying much when your competition doesn’t have opposable thumbs,” April said dryly.

“I am an expert at tying knots!” Karai insisted.

“And yet you couldn’t untie these,” April shot back. “Maybe you need a little remedial training. Or does Shredder favor a death upon capture policy?”

“I would gladly die for the Foot Clan if the situation called for it,” Karai bristled. April held her hands up in surrender, regretting the jab. For now she needed to work with Karai, not alienate her.

“Sorry, it was just an idle question.”

“But a valid one,” Karai admitted. She took a deep breath, reining in her temper. “My Father would be displeased by my poor performance this evening. He expects better.” April held her tongue on a dozen things she wanted to say about Karai’s father. Either of them. However, this was not the time nor the place for that argument.

“Let’s see if we can pull up a map or schematics before we head out,” April said. She turned on the dusky desktop and briefly rifled through the papers. “I don’t want to be running around blind in a Kraang facility.”

“We need to get out of here and find my weapons,” Karai countered. “Sooner or later they’re going to remember they stashed us in here and I want to be gone, preferably armed, when that happens.”

“Every time the turtles breached a Kraang facility they didn’t know where they were going, ended up setting off an alarm, and got chased by Kraangdroids while dodging weapon fire,” April explained. Maybe basic reasoning skills would work on her. “I don’t want that happening to us.”

“Then it’s a lucky thing we aren’t turtles,” Karai said, grinning unexpectedly. “Come on April, don’t you think we’d make a great team if we put our minds to it?”

“I feel like I’m being invited to come to the dark side,” April muttered.

“I’m afraid I don’t have any cookies,” Karai said. They smiled briefly at each other, savoring the joke. Then Karai coughed and looked at her seriously again. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re a good ninja, April. When you take into account the fact you’ve been training for less than a year I would consider your progress exceptional.”

“Thanks?” April said. Karai complimenting her was confusing and disconcerting. She needed to figure out what her angle was.

“You might even be better than some of the turtles,” Karai continued. April rolled her eyes.

“Now you’re laying it on too thick. Get to your point.”

“If things had worked out differently we could have been friends,” Karai snapped. “We are more efficient and professional on a mission than the turtles ever are. I also doubt we’d succumb to the same petty infighting that plagues their team dynamics.”

“No, we’d just have an out and out bloodbath.”

Karai smirked. She didn’t have to say anything. They both knew Karai had more respect for her since their last fight, though April wished she had gotten her to lay off the comments about her using boys. It simply wasn’t true. Anyway, if Leo was any example, Karai used boys way more than she did.

Before they could argue any further the door handle rattled. The girls exchanged a glance then disappeared into the shadows. The door opened and two Kraangdroids walked into the room. One was a Norman while the other had no exterior camouflage. April could see Karai’s reflection on the blue chrome of the second Kraangdroid. She held her breath.

“Kraang, is this not the place Kraang designated as the place where the one called April O’Neil could be found?” the Kraangdroid asked.

“Kraang, the place Kraang designated as the place where the one called April O’Neil could be found is this place, Kraang,” the Norman replied.

April was getting sick of the redundant Kraang speak. Karai must have felt the same because she saw her leap out of the shadows onto the robotic Kraangdroid. April cursed and attacked the other one before he could point his laser blaster at Karai. They had no reason to keep her alive and April would make a poor partner if she didn’t watch her back.

Karai easily twisted off the head of her Kraangdroid and kicked the body into the far wall. April had a much harder time with hers. She just wasn’t as comfortable as Karai was using killing blows on things that looked human. Her Kraangdroid flailed about the room shrieking alert as April rode on its back until she was able to kick out its knee joints. They crashed to the ground together. Karai blew off the Kraangdroid’s head with her victim’s laser blaster, then turned it on the pink brainy alien in the Kraangdroid’s gut.

“Wait,” April said, grabbing the second plasma rifle, “we don’t need to kill it.”

“It’s an alien menace, April, bent on world domination!” Karai snapped, “If I can’t kill it, who can I kill?”

“We can just lock them up in this room, okay?” April shot the computer and then the bank of monitors. The weapon’s trigger was shockingly smooth to pull and the discharges hit significantly lower than she had been expecting. That was good to know. “They can’t call for help now and I want to avoid killing if we can help it.” 

“Fine,” Karai growled as she lowered her weapon. She kicked the Kraangdroid into the same wall as the first. “We go find my weapons now!”

“Deal,” April grinned.

They shut the door and melted the hinges so that it wouldn’t open. Then they turned and ran, looking for an armory while being careful not to touch anything unnecessarily. The whole situation felt surreal to April. Here she was, running in tandem with Karai, carrying a laser blaster, in total silence save for the sound of their shoes tapping on the base’s tile. She was certain the Kraang didn’t know they had escaped, yet. The last several facilities April had been in taught her that the Kraang weren’t exactly subtle with their alarm systems. They would know when they had been detected.

A small group of Kraangdroids exited a room. Karai shot down the first two before they had even turned around. April took out the other two. It was awkward wielding the gun while running, but neither girl broke their stride. They shared a grin as they leaped over the pile of smoking metal. April would never admit it to Karai, but she had been right; when they had the same goal they made a great team.

They continued to run through the twisting passageways. All of the doors looked the same with basically no differentiation markers on them. The Kraang had done a good job obliterating even the military’s old room numbering system. Nothing about green corridors suggested where they were supposed to go. With no other Kraang in sight to spur her on, April eventually had to rest. Not unexpectedly Karai was frustrated and quickly lost her temper.

“We’re not making any progress!” Karai growled. She kicked a nearby door hard enough to send it rattling. “Where are my swords?”

“Maybe if you hadn’t insisted we run off half-cocked we could have figured out the layout in our cell,” April panted, Karai turned on her, snarling.

“In case you forgot, April, we had two house guests that didn’t give us the chance!” Karai shouted. “Why don’t you do something useful like translate the alien so we can get our stuff and get out of here!”

“Okay, even if I could read the Kraang language, do you see any for me to translate?” April demanded, also losing her patience. “There is nothing here! Seriously, I’ve seen B-film horror flicks with more detail in their scenery than this place has.”

“That’s it,” Karai said. She looked around with renewed wonder. “That’s exactly what this is!”

“We’re in a B-Horror movie?”

“No, this place is just fake,” Karai said. She kicked the door until it broke down and began tapping on the walls inside. “We’re in a staged set or a hologram!”

“Are you crazy? We have fought and taken on actual Kraang here,” April snapped, following her into the room.

“Exactly,” Karai said, looking up. She looked half-crazed. “It’s been ages since those first two Kraangdroids came for us. They’d have been missed by now and found incapacitated, which means they should be on the red alert, looking for us by now!” As soon as the words were out of her mouth an alarm started and the hallway flashed red. 

“Are you happy now?” April shouted, partly to be heard, mostly because she was pissed.

“Yes! Don’t you see that wasn’t a coincidence? They’re monitoring us like we’re in some sort of giant rat maze,” Karai shouted. She looked thrilled. “Open your eyes, April, and think!”

“You’re insane!” April shouted. She should have realized anyone as close to Shredder as the kunoichi would be completely mental. She was going to get them killed.

“Use your head, April,” Karai ordered. She jabbed the redhead in the shoulder to drive her point home. “There aren’t any turtles to get you out of this mess.” 

“I don’t need the turtles,” April growled, slapping her hand away.

“Oh yeah,” Karai sneered. Her twisted smirk looked particularly unpleasant in the flashing red of the alarm. “Because the way I see it, the turtles do everything for you. Raph fights for you, Leo protects you, Mikey’s there for your amusement, and don’t even get me started on Donny.” 

“Stop it.” April cringed, trying to ward off the physical and verbal jabs. Karai was wrong. She was her own person and she pulled her own weight. Sure, the guys did things for her sometimes, but that was because they were friends and the turtles had more fighting experience. She was well on her way to becoming a ninja in her own right and she already helped out wherever she could.

“April, I made you a new phone. April, here’s a new weapon. April, I saved you the last slice of pizza. April, you can use my rope. I’ll protect you, April! April, am I impressing you?” Karai mocked with a startlingly accurate imitation of Donatello’s voice. “Considering how much you ass kiss the rat I’m surprised you haven’t already married braniac so you could be a real daughter of the freak family.”

“Enough,” April growled, clenching her fists. She was going to kill her.

“I only said those things to you earlier to get you up and moving, you sniveling coward,” Karai continued. “Face it, April, you couldn’t fight your way out of a paper bag without two turtles holding both hands.”

“I fight my own battles, you witch!” April bellowed. She threw a huge hook. It was slow, clumsy, completely out of the form Master Splinter had taught her. She threw her whole body into it, leaving herself completely defenseless if she missed. She didn’t know who it shocked more when her punch actually connected. However, April wasn’t about to pull her punches and she had thrown her whole weight into mashing Karai’s face.

The kunoichi flew back and smashed into the wall. She hit the wall hard enough that a panel about the size of a door fell down. This revealed that the wall was composed of sheets of metal half an inch thick and a catwalk stretching into a vast expanse that looked a lot more like a traditional Kraang facility. The fact Karai had been right about their location just made April angrier. She wasn’t right about her.

Before Karai could recover April continued her attack. She managed to kick the kunoichi twice before Karai caught her leg and yanked her off her feet. April hit the catwalk hard. She rolled on her side and tried to break Karai’s nose with her knee. Instead she blocked the blow then smoothly slid up the textured floor to punch April in the stomach twice. The hits made her want to puke.

“Enough,” Karai ordered. “We need to get out of here.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” April howled. She tried to claw her face, but the kunoichi easily deflected her.

“I only said those things to get you to help me check the walls for the exit,” Karai said, continuing to easily fend off April. “You have to admit my methods were effective. Maybe too effective. I really did mean what I had said earlier.”

“You’re a viper!” April hissed, “a poisonous snake full of lies and vitriol!”

Karai expertly spun April around and slammed her into the ground face down. She pinned her with a knee then pulled both of April’s arms up behind her until they were locked in place. She was trapped and couldn’t escape.

“You’re right, on all counts,” Karai agreed. “But I’m also your partner and all you’ve got. You don’t have to trust me, I certainly wouldn’t, but you do have to work with me.”

They stayed in their respective positions until April stopped struggling and stilled. She was still furious though. Karai must have felt April was no longer a threat because she let her up and then brushed off the dust. April glowered at her, to which she just smiled in response.

“Ready to find my weapons and blow this place?” Karai asked.

April shoved her over the railing.

She regretted it immediately. April had set out to learn ninjutsu for her own protection and self-defense, not to harm others. She had never planned to maliciously attack someone nor was she willing to take a life unless her own was in immediate danger. That was the reason she refused to let Karai actually kill the Kraang, even though she knew it would make them safer and the aliens deserved it. That was a line April thought she would never be willing to cross. Yet here she was hurling people over that line just because she lost her temper.

Perhaps the worst part of it from April’s point of view, after all she wasn’t falling to her death, was the way Karai’s eyes widened in shock. She was completely unprepared for April’s attack and took the full brunt of it, which is why she was now falling. She had never promised to help or protect Karai, but April nonetheless felt like the backstabbing snake in the grass she had just accused her of being. She had never said she wouldn’t accept the partnership either, which allowed Karai to assume they were a team. So technically, April hadn’t betrayed her, as they had never been on the same side, but in her gut April knew she hadn’t stayed true to her own moral code.

None of this consciously occurred to her. What did pass through her mind was that April needed to fix this. She lunged forward two seconds after pushing Karai to grab her, but her reaction was too slow and Karai was already out of reach. April’s jaw dropped as she watched Karai’s descent.

Luckily the kunoichi’s reaction time was much faster. She caught the floor of the catwalk with one hand, swinging back and forth slightly. She looked like she wanted to reach up and grab the walkway with her other hand, but couldn’t quite get up the momentum. She looked scared as she stared up at April. She obviously didn’t want to fall.

April looked past Karai to see how bad it would be if she actually fell. If it was a ten or twenty foot drop that wouldn’t be too terrible, but a fifty or sixty foot fall was a completely different matter. That was the sort of difference that turned bone into jelly. She swore then dropped to her knees to grab at Karai. The drop wasn’t actually that far, but April highly doubted Karai wanted to land in the massive open topped tank of mutagen under the catwalk. She didn’t have a clue why the Kraang built their facilities to include giant open vats of mutagen that anything could just fall into, but they seemed really fond of the architectural design. April may have caused their current predicament, but she wasn’t about to let Karai fall in. Who knows what sort of transformation the kunoichi would undergo.

At least, April attempted to help Karai. Not surprisingly, the other girl didn’t believe her when she said she wanted to help. She deserved it, but April felt a bit hurt when Karai accused her of trying to finish the job. If they didn’t reach some sort of understanding fast Karai would fall before she could be saved. She had been hanging by four fingers for a long time now.

“I am so sorry I pushed you over the edge, but do you really think I’d be trying to grab your free hand if I was trying to finish offing you?” April demanded. She had her head and hands through the railing, trying to catch Karai without disturbing her only connection to the catwalk.

“I don’t understand a single thing that goes through your head,” Karai snarled, still trying to swing away from April. “You just want me to grab you so you can drop me!”

“No! I’m here as extra support. If you just hung onto me you’d pull us both in and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to turn into the last animal I touched. I’d make a terrible cockatoo!”

Oddly enough, that was the sentiment that finally got Karai to take her hand. April grabbed hold with both of hers and pulled with all her might. She got Karai’s second hand onto the lowest rung of the protective railing. That was enough. With two secured bands and a shocking display of upper body strength Karai hauled herself up over the railing back onto the catwalk. April backed up several paces and took a fighting stance. She expected Karai to try and throw her into the mutagen tank now. After all, the Foot Clan was all about revenge.

Karai slipped into a fighting stance too. There was a long tense pause as the girls stared at each other. April didn’t want her to attack. She didn’t want to fight her. She was so sick of fighting tonight and she didn’t know how much longer she could keep it up. Karai dropped her stance and shook her head. April didn’t move. This could be some sort of trick and even if it wasn’t, Karai could attack so much faster than she could.

“You wouldn’t have helped me if your intent was to off me,” Karai said. “You had me completely at your mercy, but then you didn’t use it to your advantage. You’re not going to attack me now, you’re not quite that mercurial.”

“No, I’m sick of fighting with you,” April said. “I never meant to shove you like that, I just lost my temper badly.”

“I didn’t notice,” Karai said wryly. She smirked at April. She always seemed to be doing that. “Have you cooled off or should I expect another blow up? I’d like to know before I offer the hand of friendship again. I’ll need both of them if I have to grab the catwalk again.”

“How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?” April asked, dropping her stance.

“Temper, temper,” Karai snickered, eyeing her.

“Truce? Like, an honest to goodness partnership, just for tonight? I am so sick of not being able to trust you, especially when we’re up against something so much worse than each other.”

“I haven’t tried to seriously harm you since the Kraang kidnapped us, princess.” Karai held out her hand. “You just made the same offer I’ve been making you all night. Tell you what, if you don’t try to murder me again I’ll even buy you cookies after we get out of here, being on the dark side and all.”

April took her hand and they shook. Before she let go Karai punched April in the nose with her free hand. April doubled over and spat blood onto the catwalk. She was pretty certain the kunoichi just broken her nose. At least Karai hadn’t continued her assault.

“What was that for?” April coughed.

“You almost mutated me!” Karai shouted. “I’d prefer a swift honorable death to becoming a freak!”

“I’ll keep that in mind for the future. Death before mutation.”

“Come on, we still have to find my weapons and blow this place up. Or are you gonna object because that might hurt the poor little aliens?”

“No, I’m good actually,” April admitted. “There’s usually a self destruct countdown. Let’s blow this place up.”

“Finally something we agree on.”

They made it off the catwalk without further incident. April really didn’t want to destabilize their new tenuous relationship, but she did have a burning question for Karai now that they weren’t trying to kill each other. She decided to ask it once they made it into a regular Kraang style hallway.

“How did you realize we weren’t in the Kraang facility proper?” she asked. “Like, that was impressive in retrospect, but while we were in there you just seemed crazy.”

“It was your comment about our surroundings,” Karai said. “I realized the base looked just like the one from Sigma 6, so it couldn’t possibly be a real converted US military base.”

“Wait a minute, you’ve seen enough of that awful Asian live action G.I. Joe knockoff to realize we were essentially in a set of it?” April asked, laughing.

“Shut up,” Karai said defensively. “There are explosions, the fight sequences aren’t that bad, and the whole Foot Clan likes cheering for Cobra.”

“This is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard,” April snorted. “The Foot loves G.I. Joe. You love G.I. Joe!” Karai hit her shoulder, but nowhere near as hard as she usually would. April tried to control her laughter, but that was impossible. This was just too funny.

As they had worn themselves out fighting each other, they adopted an avoidance strategy for dealing with the Kraang. Every time they heard the clunk of Kraangdroid feet they’d duck into the nearest unoccupied room. This was a smart plan as it kept them undetected and forced them to explore the complex, carefully examining everything for any hint it could help them accomplish either of their goals. There were also way more Kraang in the main facility and April had no chance of taking them all on. Karai didn’t say anything on the subject, but April knew the kunoichi couldn’t either.

One of their many rapid retreats finally yielded results. To Karai’s surprise and delight they had hidden in an armory. April found the kunoichi’s weapons piled haphazardly on the floor in a corner. Karai was displeased about their treatment, but she quickly restored them all to their proper place. April hadn’t realized how many weapons Karai kept on her person. Watching her put them away was a learning experience. April was able to get her T-phone back, though there was no signal, and then she grabbed one of the spare laser blasters for good measure.

“Where do you think they keep the explosives?” Karai asked, looking around the room. “I don’t think there’s enough for the whole building in here.”

“If this is anything like the last Kraang facility the turtles blew up we can just follow the power conduits until we reach the center of operations,” April said. “They were able to destroy the place easily from there.”

“Perfect,” Karai smirked.

Now that she had her weapons back Karai was less willing to flee. At least she still agreed to stealth tactics. Still, April felt uneasy and apprehensive every time Karai dropped down in ambush on a group of Kraangdroids. She was messy and visceral, slicing limbs off the bodies with the ease of hours and hours of practice. April would emerge from a room after that to act as lookout and shoot any runaways. While their new strategy was a bit more dangerous than their previous one, Karai did make one concession to April’s needs. They never ambushed more than five Kraang at a time. At least they were making faster progress.

Things went well until they didn’t. April came out of a supply closet as Karai was happily hacking away at five Kraangdroids. Everything was going along like the last dozen encounters until a Kraang got a lucky shot and hit the kunoichi in the arm with a laser blast. Karai dropped her sword. April shot the Kraangdroid then rushed to her side. Karai was still on her feet and she looked pissed, but she was clutching her shoulder. The most worrying part for April was that Karai hadn’t picked up her weapon again. Considering how obsessed she was about that tanto April wondered if Karai couldn’t pick it up. Before she could ask how the kunoichi was feeling another group of Kraangdroids came around the corner. There was a pause as the two groups stared at each other.

“Kraang, is that the one known as April O’Neil and another intruder who is not Kraang, Kraang?” one of the Kraangdroids said.

“Yes Kraang, that the one known as April O’Neil and another intruder who is not Kraang,” responded another Kraangdroid. They weren’t armed, but there were a lot of them, well over ten droids. Karai nudged April with her good elbow.

“Shoot them,” she hissed.

April looked down and remembered, oh right, for once she was facing the Kraang armed. The Kraang reached the same conclusion, scattering when April lifted the laser blaster. Several of them charged her, which were the first she took out, but others went in the opposite direction.

“Kraang, hit the button that starts the noise and the lights that alert Kraang to intruders in the place of Kraang!” a Kraangdroid shouted from its half destroyed position on the floor. Moments later the alarm system sounded.

Karai bent down and grabbed the tanto with her good arm. April shot another couple of robots before she turned and ran. Karai was right on her heels. The time for stealth was over and they pounded along the power conduits as fast as was physically possible. April smashed her laser blaster into the face of a Norman that appeared unexpectedly in front of them. It wrecked the gun, but totaled the Kraangdroid.

They hit a massive set of doors. April recognized them as the sort that closed off the central command center from the rest of the facility. As Karai was wounded it fell on her to wrench one of them open. She struggled, but managed to pull open one of the massive doors just wide enough to worm her way in. April looked over her shoulder for Karai. She wanted her to hurry up and get through, as she felt seriously uncomfortable trapped where she was at the moment.

To her horror, Karai was lunging straight at her, tanto aimed at her face. April froze. There was no place for her to move. She was a fool for trusting the kunoichi. Once a traitor always a traitor.

April refused to shut her eyes, instead choosing to glare at Karai. She may not be able to escape death, but she wouldn’t flinch or hide from it either. Karai would have to look her in the eyes as she murdered her. She stared Karai in the eye, but broke the contact as the blade slide out of her peripheral vision. April turned her head as she watched the sword fly right past her head to puncture through the face of a Kraangdroid. When April turned back to Karai she realized the kunoichi was so close they bumped noses.

“Did you think that was meant for you?” Karai smirked.

April shoved her, trying to back away, but realized she was completely trapped by the doors, robot, and ninja. Karai retracted the blade—still held in her good arm, which April was pretty she wasn’t her dominant hand—and the Kraangdroid crumpled to the ground. She backed into the room, holding the door just long enough for Karai to follow. Then they barricaded it as quickly as possible.

“There’s the central computer,” April said, pointing at what was obviously the central computer. “Donny said he got the self destruct sequence started here.” They rushed over to the computer. Everything was still in Kraang.

“What do we do now?” Karai asked, watching as April rapidly looked over the controls. The redhead tentatively hit a few buttons, totally clueless what she was doing. More symbols appeared.

“I don’t know! I’m not fluent in computers or alien!” April shouted at her as she continued to try and get something to work. “Your schooling may have covered advanced Kraang linguistics, but mine did not!”

April continued jabbing buttons, but none of her actions on the Kraang system illuminated anything. Nothing about the system made sense and with the squealing alarm and the strobe effect of red light she couldn’t think. She growled and pounded her fists against the control panel. Quite a few things lit up and half the Kraang symbols on the screen disappeared, but April didn’t know what that meant. Karai pushed her away from the control panel.

“If you can’t figure it out, I will,” Karai said.

“Be my guest,” April responded, feeling a little miffed. She highly doubted Karai would do any better.

“Thank you,” she said. Then she stabbed a sai into the control panel. The computer began sparking, running blue strands of electricity over the sai, then exploded.

Of course it exploded. Regular electronics just shorted out, maybe with a bit of a pop, but Kraang technology had to explode. Now the gunk that had been inside the machine was everywhere. It also seemed very flammable as electrical sparks set patches of it on fire. Not only was it flammable, but April would even go as far as to wager it was an accelerant, as metal components of the Kraang facility were now on fire. They may have initially set out to blow the place up but burning it down seemed like an acceptable alternative.

The alarm’s pitch and frequency changed. April looked around the room for an escape route. While looking around she noticed that all the remaining screens were flashing a series of symbols. She didn’t know what it meant, but she had her suspicions and she didn’t like them.

“We need to get out of here now,” April said.

“Yeah, that’s on my to do list, but the flames aren’t that bad yet.”

“I think you triggered the self destruct sequence after all,” April said. “Because that looks a lot like a countdown.”

“Then let’s get out of here,” Karai said, sheathing her sword.

They left Karai’s sai as a parting gift for the Kraang. It was a very fast and confused exit from the Kraang facility. Most of that involved running up flights and flights of stairs. They ran into a few Kraang on their way out, but the aliens were more focused on escape than capture, which supported their theory this place was about to become a massive fireball. When they finally emerged it was out of a small building at the edge of simple asphalt parking lot. That might have been the most surreal part of the Kraang design considering how valuable space was in New York City. It ought to have been a massive parking structure. They fled the fenced in lot pausing across the street to catch their breath.

“Did it explode? Are we dead?” April panted, doubled over.

“No,” Karai said, straightening. “What a let down.”

The parking lot exploded upwards as if there had been a volcanic eruption. There was a massive boom that almost knocked April off her feet, then they were pelted by a rain of asphalt and burning car parts. A mostly whole, but smoking van landed upside down in front of them. Karai said something, but April couldn’t hear her. She hoped she hadn’t just gone deaf.

“What?” April shouted. Karai frowned and shrugged. It seemed she couldn’t hear April either. Great. They could be deaf kunoichi together. They stood there testing their senses and trying to regroup. After a while April could faintly hear the sound of thirty different car alarms sounding and the even fainter sound of sirens approaching. She decided to test the other girl’s hearing. “Karai?”

“Yeah?”

“What did you say earlier?”

“I stand corrected.”

They left before the cops showed up. Neither one of them could explain to the proper authorities what had happened that night and they didn’t feel like being detained for an indefinite period. Besides, it was now dawn and April was bushed. She just wanted to go to bed. After walking six blocks Karai led April into a corner store. The redhead didn’t know why she was still following the kunoichi as their truce was at an end, but she wasn’t quite ready to part ways yet. April couldn’t just write off everything that had happened last night. Blowing up a Kraang facility together ought to mean something. Karai bought a bottle of green tea and a package of Oreos. She shoved the cookies into April’s hands. The redhead looked up at her in surprise.

“I promised, didn’t I?” Karai said, quirking her lips into a half smirk.

They sat on a nearby bus stop bench sharing the tea and cookies. April was surprised to see Karai also liked to twist the cookies apart and eat the crème filling first. It was a little disturbing how April kept finding more and more similarities between them. If the circumstances were different they could have been friends.

“How’s the arm?” April asked.

“It hurts like hell,” Karai said, popping another cookie in her mouth, “but I’ll be fine in a day or two.”

“I guess the truce is over?” April asked. She took the tea from Karai, had a swig, then passed it back.

“Pretty much,” Karai agreed. The kunoichi stood up and brushed off the crumbs. She placed a hand on her side and jerked her head to the side. “Come on, princess, I’ll give you a ride. Wherever you want.”

“How?”

“I’ve got a bike stashed three blocks east of here,” Karai said. “Father feels it’s important that a ninja on the go be easily mobile so I’ve got a dozen stashed across the city.”

“If we’re no longer allies, why should I trust you? It seems to me like it’d be a really stupid move to accept a ride.”

“Fine,” Karai shrugged. “If you’d rather stay on Staten Island so be it.” Karai made a very good point. April took the ride. 

“Woah,” Casey said when a motorcycle pulled up in front of Roosevelt High School. Two ladies were on it. The girl in back dismounted, took off her helmet, and handed it to the punky Asian chick driving. “Who’s that with April?”

“Someone much cooler than you, Jones,” Irma said without looking up from her book.

“I’m a little surprised you didn’t try to kidnap me again,” April grinned. Riding with Karai had been amazing, once in a lifetime experience. She broke so many traffic laws April couldn’t believe they were still in one piece. It was the fastest, albeit not the most direct route to her school she had ever experienced.

“Disappointed?” Karai smirked, raising her eyebrows.

“Hardly,” April scoffed.

“Yeah, I’m sure high school is so much better than anything I could have come up with for today,” Karai drawled. April punched her lightly, careful to avoid her bad arm.

“Well, some of us have to live in the real world.”

“Next time we meet we’ll be on opposite sides again,” Karai warned. “Don’t think for a moment I’ll go easy on you.”

“Are you certain?” April asked, trying to school her expression into something serious. “At certain points tonight you were almost friendly.”

“Yeah, well don’t get used to it.”

“If you ever settle your dispute with the turtles I’d like to be friends,” April said softly. “I could use a little more girl power in my friends circle.”

“April!” Irma called out, waving at the redhead from her spot on the front steps by Casey. April waved back. Irma got up and slowly began walking toward them, Casey following.

“If that’s all the girl power you’ve got, you’re in serious trouble even if I was willing to hang out with you,” Karai said as she stared at April’s friends. “I’m amazing, but I’m no miracle worker.”

“Be nice,” April ordered, scowling as she shook a finger at Karai. “She may not look it, but Irma’s awesome.”

“I’m never nice,” Karai said. “Later princess.”

Karai vroomed away on her motorcycle leaving April coughing in a cloud of exhaust. That was the biggest problem with ninjas; they always made such flashy exits. Irma and Casey reached April’s side just as she recovered from the fumes. Casey tapped her shoulder.

“Who was that, Red?” he asked.

“A friend,” April said. That wasn’t right, but trying to explain Karai was far too difficult to imagine.

“Are you okay, April?” Irma asked. “You look a little frazzled and out of it. I hope you didn’t forget to sleep while studying for today’s history test.”

“I—no,” April said, startled.

She had completely forgotten about the history test. As the three walked toward first period April immensely regretted not going off with Karai, or at least skipping school to sleep. She sat down at her desk and then after class started the teacher passed out the exam. After reading the first question she quietly swore. Yeah, Karai would have been the right choice after all.


End file.
